


Sky Leopard

by Commander_shadow



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Black Box, Cannon Divergence, Gen, Heartless (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Second keyblade war, Sora is Gula theory, Spirits, Time Travel, additional Tages added later, first keyblade war, not sure if it's true, poor Sora, writing the master of master is confusing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2020-07-31 19:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20120104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Commander_shadow/pseuds/Commander_shadow
Summary: (This story can be found on Wattpad under the same username)After Sora saved Kairi he vanished but instead of going to kingdom hearts itself, instead he is sent to the past losing his keyblade and his memories locked away. Meanwhile the Master of Masters finds an unconscious teen on the hill in Daybreak town.





	1. Distorting Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just another reminder this fanfic can be found on Wattpad under the same username so please don't spam me with plagiarism as I do own both accounts.
> 
> The idea came to me after people speculated that Sora was the foreteller Gula because they did the same pose with their keyblades. I decided why not, let's make a story out of this!
> 
> Even though the final cutscene of KH3 of with the four foretellers and the chessboard young Eraqus set up says otherwise, but this is just a fanfic.
> 
> I don't own Kingdom Hearts

\-------------------------------------------------

A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory

A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream

I want to line the pieces up, yours and mine

\------------------------------------------------

(Sora)

Sora had done it. He'd saved the universe from the darkness Xehanort had tried to unleash by returning the world as one again from his purge. If Sora hadn't intervened, the world would've been lost.

Even with the defeat of the main antagonist, however, there was one still one person who was missing to the brunette and his friends.

Kairi.

The girl Sora had loved since she appeared on the island had had her heart shattered by Xehanort. He'd used her to motivate the keyblade wielder to finish forging the X-blade, the counter of Kingdom Hearts.

No matter how victory felt to Sora, it was hollow without redhead celebrating their victory.

And the only way that Sora knew would save Kairi was the power of waking - even though he'd used that power to save the rest of his friends after they fell to darkness.

"Sora, the Power of Waking isn't something to be used constantly. Who knows what would happen to you? Mikey, the king of Disney Castle, warned Sora.

"I know the risks, Your Majesty, but I can't let Kairi stay in darkness any longer. I will come back," Sora responded, giving his usual grin.

Knowing that arguing with the brunette was pointless once he'd set his mind, Mikey sighed. "Alright then. Safe journey, Sora."

Nodding his head, Sora closed his eyes as he pointed his keyblade at the ground, feeling the power washing over him he unleashed the power inside of him and everything turned black.

When Sora opened his eyes, he was standing on what was apparently Kairi's Serinity station. To the teens opinion, it was beautiful. It had a picture of Kairi in here in her 14-year-old body holding her keyblade beside her, eyes closed. The station had flowers scattered around it with a crystal heart opposite the girl.

However, the station was chipped heavily, with pieces on the outside missing and half of the crystal heart gone, leaving jagged cuts behind. No only was Kairi's heart shattered, but it was also wrapped in chains. They emitted Light in the rhythm of a heartbeat, though it was pulsing slowly, like it was strugging to continue.

**"You have returned, Sora. Why? Why did you come back to the Last World? "** Something spoke with authority from the inky blackness, causing Sora to dart around to locate the source of the voice.

Suddenly, a white hooded figure floated from the opposite side of the station. Its hood covered its face in darkness, leaving only blue colour of his eyes visible. On its back were wings that were pure white, whiter than snow.

**"Greetings, Sora. I am an angel of Kingdom hearts, and it is my duty to bring all hearts to Kingdom Hearts to be united and continue living. However, what what you are seeing is a special occasion,"** the angel spoke again, watching Sora.

"What special occasion? What is going on?" the brunette questioned, not following on.

**"Normally ,hearts that are lost are sent straight to Kingdom Hearts because, if they stray too long without any sort of anchor, they would disappear and cease to exist. However for Kairi, she is a Princess of Light ,and is an important person to balance light and darkness of the world. So her heart has to remain bounded to the universe, to prevent the worlds from falling into darkness, until a new princess is found,"** the angel explained.

"So... she's stuck like this until someone whose heart is pure becomes a Princess of Light?"

**"Yes."**

Sora pondered for a moment, humming while he tried to figure out a way to overcome this problem.

"Could Kairi return to the Realm of Light if I give myself up instead of her?" Sora finally asked the being.

**"You would... give up your own life to save another being? I have never seen such selflessness like this, all the way back to the creation of Kingdom Hearts itself. You really are something special Sora,"** the being answered with disbelief.

Sora only nodded, sealing his trade to Kingdom Hearts.

**"Very well young Sora, I will let Kairi go in exchange of you. However, even though you contain darkness, because of your pure actions to save people and worlds you've never known, I will give you a second chance of living. The cost will be your current keyblade and your memory being locked away. I will give you one day until your time comes. Goodbye for now, Sora,"** the angel concluded.

With that, the entire station glowed bright as the broken parts slowly recovered to its former self, until Sora couldn't see anything and the only thing he heard was the sound of chains snapping .

\----------------Destiny Islands----------------

On one world that contained a chain of Islands, a group of people and humanoid animals were seen. They were either talking to each other, collecting seashells, playing frisbee or building sand people.

The smaller island beside this island had a special tree that contained star shaped fruit. Two people sat on the tree, one a redhaired girl and the other a brunette boy. Both were admiring the sunset horizon.

Both turned to each other, locking eyes as they took in each other's appearance.

"I'm sorry Kairi, but my time is up," said the boy.

The now-named Kairi stared at the boy, tears welling in her eyes at the statement.

"What are you talking about, Sora?"

"I had to make a deal with a angel of Kingdom Hearts to bring you back, and the only thing that had equal value was myself."

"What? Why did you offer that sort of deal you lazy bum?" Kairi shouted with shock, tears now falling down her face.

"I had to, you're the most valuable person to me. There was nothing that I wouldn't trade for you," replied Sora, his voice starting to break.

"If that's your choice, then I just want you know something, Sora."

"What is it, Kairi?"

"Sora I... I... I love... I love you."

Sora smiled. "I'm grateful to hear that. Thank you, Kairi. Hopefully we will meet again."

With those last words, Sora vanished, leaving a few sparkles of light that floated upwards to the sky. But no heart followed the light.

Kairi and the other people watched in shock and grief at the sight of their long friend vanishing right before them.

(Meanwhile)

\---------------------Keyblade Graveyard-------------------

A single black keyblade, with a blue eye at the end of the blade, fell from the sky, embedding itself itself in the ground of the dead world of the Keyblade Graveyard, at a intersection with four paths leading away from it and keyblades covering the land.

Before long, a black coated figure dragging a black box approached the fallen keyblade. Letting go of the black box, the figure approached the weapon, grabbing the hilt and lifting it from the ground.

"Finally, back where it belongs," the figure spoke with relief.

As the figure was admiring the blade, each pathway began to warp and distort with sand flying around that slowly closed in on the figure.

Shortly after the distortion ended four figures were revealed, each wearing robes and a mask of a animal covering their eyes and hair. They walked towards the black coated figure.

The first was a man that was tall and wore a white and corn blue robe. Violet jewels hung from the white hood that covered the back of his head. Covering his head was a unicorn mask that had a violet horn and blue mane. His name was Ira.

The second was also a male. He was bigger than the first and was wearing a sand coloured robe and cloak with yellow jems. Instead of a unicorn mask ontop of the man, it was in the shape of a bear with black markings and yellow eyes. His name was Aced.

The third was a female who wore a violet robe and a white hood that covered her lower face. Cyan jems hung from the cloak, and a snake covered her head. She was Invi.

The last was a young man, presumably a teenager, with a yellow and black robe and yellow cloak. Dark blue jems hung from the cloak. A white leopard with black sports mask covered his face. His name was Gula.

Ira stared at the figure momentarily before speaking.

"Did you summon us back?"

The figure only nodded in response.

"Yep."

Ira pondered for a moment before looking at the keyblade in the figures grasp. He pointed at the figure.

"Is that you, Luxu? You look different."

"I haven't heard that name in a long time." The figure, apparently Luxu, spoke before removing the hood revealing it to be the nobody Xigbar.

"These days they call me Xigbar. But hey, whatever suits you." Luxu said to the group, shrugging his shoulders.

Invi didn't believe what the man who claimed to be Luxu, "Is it... really you?" 

"Yeah, but sometime ago I had to cast my old form away. Been through plenty more since, but it's still me underneath it all."

Aced didn't like the sound of this guy even if he was Luxu; it didn't explain why they were here. Pointing at the supposed Luxu he said, "What's happening? Why are we here? You tell me." 

Luxu looked at his keyblade before looking at the sky as he answered Aced's question, "I had a role to play and, after all these years, it's done."

"What role?" Invi responded, not following at what Luxu was saying.

Instead of answering Invi, Luxu looked at the group and noticed that something, or someone, was missing. "I guess Ava didn't make it after all."

"Meaning what?" Gula questioned, puzzled at what Luxu was talking about.

"I told her, clear as day, what it was I needed to do." Luxu replied.

"And is _that_ why you excluded her?" Gula continued, wanting more answers from their supposedly lost comrade.

"As _if._ Ava had her own mission, and she carried it out," Luxu again answered Gula while staring at the sky, remembering the fox-masked female.

Aced had enough at this once again he confronted Luxu, snapping Luxu's attention from the clouds to answer, "I've heard enough!" He pointed at Luxu again, "Luxu, _what was your role?"_

Luxu could only grin at the comment. He looked behind himself, bringing all the other foretellers attention to the black box. "I hope you like long stories... but this isn't the place to speak, as the wall have eyes and the ground has ears... if you want to know, meet me in a world called the World That Never Was. In the large castle, I will tell you." Luxu responded, before creating a corridor of darkness bringing the black box with him.

"Did he just...?" Invi began, surprised.

"Use darkness... yes. But there _must_ be a reason why he used darkness instead of light. I will still seek him, as he is the only person we know in this timeline who has answers," continued Ira, before creating a corridor of light to chase after Luxu.

Quickly after Ira left, both Invi and Aced followed him for answers themselfs leaving Gula in the wasteland of the keyblade graveyard.

The young foreteller surveyed the graveyard, feeling familiar to this place like he has been here before.

"Wasn't this place where I fought before... and didn't a friend of mine die here?" Gula mumbled to himself, having the feeling of déjà vú.

_'And didn't I meet someone named Xigbar before who was with some organisation?'_

Unsure what to believe, Gula would've followed Luxu to learn more about this place. But his heart is refused to let him follow, telling him not to trust his fellow comrade.

The young foreteller couldn't understand why his heart was acting differently, before it didn't act differently to Luxu when he saw the other apprentice when he was still new at the tower, but now it is refusing to follow the eye patched man is unnerving, like it had known him before.

Unsure what to decide the leader of the leopard union decided to opened a corridor of light and traveled to a different world rather than to the World That Never Was.

_'May my heart be my guiding key.'_

(Centuries ago)

\-------------------------Daybreak Town---------------------

The black-cloaked figure that represented the master of masters stood quietly atop of the clock tower, viewing the town and land beneath him. It truly was a spectacular view should anyone dare climb up here.

The stars weren't to bad, either, dotting the night sky with light. On clear days, there were so many stars the master believed it would take a lifetime to try and count them all.

But neither the night sky or the view was the reason why he was up there. No, he was there waiting for something to occur. Something that needed to happen.

Being able to see into the future was very handy in his opinion, as he knows what to expect. But, lately, things were becoming static like something was missing. When he tried looking, he saw another figure, barely visible, flicking in and out of existence. But the main feature of this figure was leopard mask, and the master knew what he was missing.

His last and final apprentice.

That would make five foretellers to leade five different unions, and seven masters if he included himself and Luxu (hopefully he himself counts). Then the future would be foretold and everything would be set.

Except, finding this last apprentice was harder than he originally thought it would be. Considering the only key to find him was a shooting star falling in night sky, finding him was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

So he stood at the top of the clock tower, watching for any shooting stars that would come at night for the past months, waiting for the last foreteller.

So he waited patiently for him to come.

And waited.

And waited.

And, after what felt like enternity of waiting, the star finally came falling out of the sky and landed on the hill where he usually stood if he wasn't here instead.

Quickly opening a corridor of light, the master traveled to the hill outside of the town to meet his final apprentice and foreteller.

When he got to the destination the light had faded to nothingness, and all that remained was the appearance of an teenage boy with spiky brown hair that seemed to defy gravity. The boy was wearing a black tank top, a black zipper jacket with a red outline and gold buttons on the side, and black-and-gray shorts with black shoes that had yellow lining around them. On both hands were gray fingerless gloves that had red on the outer side and, the last thing the master could see, was a silver necklace with a silver crown with three prongs around the boy's neck.

"So, you've finally arrived. You really know how to keep someone waiting," the master chuckled to the boy. He hoped to get a response, but the teen didn't reply. He was unconscious.

With a sigh, the master picked up the teenager and carefully took him to the clock tower.

"Geez, for a kid like you, you're heavy. No wonder why parents don't pick up their children when they get older."

\--------------------------------------------------

After carefully bringing the young teen back to the clock tower, the master brought him to a spare room that he'd prepared after his vision. The room was bland, but it would change once the teen woke up and decorated it to his idea.

Placing the unconscious boy down on the bed, the master turned to leave until he heard shuffling behind him.

Turning around, the hooded figure saw the teen had now opened his eyes and was trying to get up.

"Easy there, young one! It's late, so you should get some sleep while you can," the master informed the boy, trying to stop him from getting up.

"Where am I?" The boy asked quietly, watching the master wearily.

"You're in Daybreak Town, the best town there is. Now it's getting late, so just try and get some sleep. We can talk tomorrow," the master answered, before walking to the door.

"...Ok," was the only thing the boy replied. He lay back down to get some sleep.

Once the master believed the teen was fast asleep, he quietly exited the room and began walking to his room when he was stopped by his second apprentice, Ira.

"Master, who was that you were carrying? Is he going to be a leader of a union like us?" The chosen one of the unicorn mask asked.

"Analytic as you are Ira, I am only going to say this: he is your new comrade and, from what he is currently showing, he is suffering from some kind of amnesia. So don't make the kid nervous, alright? Good, once he has settled you and the others can see him," was the only thing the master said as he walked by Ira to his room.

"If you say so, master," Ira replied, bowing before walking to his room.

For the now-sleeping teen, the only thing he dreamt of was an Island with a star fruit baring tree and faceless people.

\--------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm unsure what happens when people's hearts are released in Kingdom Hearts, so the angle was just my belief on the occurrence.
> 
> I had chains covering Kairi's Serinity station is to represent the tethering on her heart to the world, as she is theoretically like a "prisoner," who can't go to Kingdom Hearts until a replacement was found to take her position of being the princess of light.
> 
> It's a good thing that Square Enix didn't do the history of each foreteller, which allows people to create their own stories about their past!
> 
> If I do a shipping, which one should I do? Sora and Kairi, or Gula and Ava?


	2. Accepting an Offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here are the current votes I've received from both here and Wattpad:
> 
> Sora X Kairi: 0
> 
> Gula X Ava: 1
> 
> So far Gula and Ava are in the lead, this will be up until December.
> 
> With this story's set-up, there will be chapters in both the past and present.
> 
> I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

\---------------Daybreak town--------------------

Dawn finally began to show itself to the town of Daybreak, and people old and young slowly woke from their slumber to begin a new day.

Inside the clock tower, a teen with spiky brown hair was sleeping in a bare room that contained only a bed.

He dreamed until a ray of sunshine bathed him warmth, interrupting his sleep. Groggily, the brunette sluggishly opened his eyes, before closing them again due to the blinding light

The teen sat up slowly, groaning at the effort he needed to put in to preform a simple task. After that he opened his eyes once more; thankfully, no sunlight was there to blind him.

The teen took in his strange, unfamiliar surroundings in this strange place before remembering the strange, cloaked figure who'd brought him to this room.

Carefully, the boy swung his legs over the side of the bed and was about to stand up when the door opened, revealing the clocked figure from yesterday.

"Good morning. You seemly wanted to continue living in the world of dreams just minutes ago when I checked you," the figure spoke, closing the door behind him.

"Where... am I? What happened?" the teen asked the figure, confused and lost.

"I've already told you where you are; you're in my home in Daybreak Town which is... well, the clock tower. As to what happened, I believe you fell from the sky. Unsure how you got there in the first place," the figure explained. He then remembered something, "Oh, right, I haven't introduced myself. I am the Master of Masters, but you can call me Master for short."

The teen nodded at the figure, now known as the Master. He opened his mouth to introduce himself but closed it once more - he couldn't remember his name. This saddened the youth. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "But I... don't remember my name." The boy looked down.

"It's fine, kid, we'll just give you a new name. For now, let's get you something to eat. Afterwards, if you want, I can teach you about this world," the Master said, trying to lighten up the boy's mood up with the mention of food.

Suddenly a large growl was heard and the Master tensed up, preparing to face whatever made that loud noise - only to notice the teen's face reddening in embarrassment.

"S... Sorry... I guess I haven't eaten for a while," the boy stuttered, as his face reddened like a tomato.

Sighing with relief, the Master relaxed before chuckling to himself, "It's fine, I know someone that has similar problems with food after finishing training sessions, but that's for another time. Now, what would you like?"

The teen hummed to himself before deciding on fruit. The Master nodded before opening the door, waiting for the teen who quickly scrambled to his feet and followed the Master to the kitchen.

A short while later, both were found inside a large room with many stoves, ovens, fridges and pantries full of food. The kitchen's contents could probably feed the entire town if the Master wanted to.

The Master headed to one of the fridges and opened it to grab an apple and some strawberries. He placed them on a plate which the teen gratefully accepted. The master stepped back in surprise at how fast the kid ate the fruit: if you were to blink, the food would've looked like it magically disappeared. The apple's core and the strawberry stems were the only evidence that the fruits had been there before. Even for someone who has almost seen everything, this was unexpected.

The boy quietly spoke a 'thank you' as he carefully took the plate back to the kitchen to remove the waste into the trash and placing the plate on a stack of other dishes.

The Master lead the boy out of the kitchen to the corridors, turning left and right, passing the many gears and cogs that make the clock run. Eventually, both arrived at a large room with multiple bookshelves scattering around the room. Some books contained information about this world, and others about creatures of shadow (which made the teen flinch upon seeing them). At the centre was a large table made from dark wood with a star etched into the center. Off to a corner was a lone desk containing books, some opened and paper scattered around it or pined to the wall. Above them were seven stained glass windows: six displayed the heads of a unicorn, bear, cobra, leopard, fox and a goat, while the last one displayed a heart with light and darkness wrapped around it.

However, if you looked closely at the leopard, you would notice a crown with three prongs hiding behind the head, barely visible except to those who looked hard enough.

The Master strolled into the room and approached one of the bookshelves, grabbing a book. He brought the book to the large table and placed it on the surface, opening the book and flicking through the pages until he stopped, standing back up. His attention fell onto the teen.

"Before we begin, I want to ask you this: do you know what this is?" The Master raised his right hand. There was a flash of light and a sword shaped like a key appeared in his hand. Its guard was violet with a keychain ending with a yellow star. The other end was a silver-ish cylinder pole with a large silver star hanging to the side, which just shouted light.

"A... keyblade," The teen quietly answered. The weapon felt familiar to him, but he couldn't recall where he had seen one. A pang was felt in his chest told him that he was missing something strangely.

"Correct. Though, I _am_ surprised that you know this, considering you are suffering amnesia," the Master replied. He vanished the weapon before clapping his hand continuing, "That was indeed a keyblade named Starlight. Now, there are many different keyblades, each with their own name and design. How you receive them is different, depending on how you get them. You could be chosen by a keyblade because of you have a strong Light and are worthy of wielding one, or someone with a keyblade can preform a keyblade inheritance ceremony to you with their own, allowing you to be able to wield one later. Finally, you could forge one from your own heart, but this method is very dangerous as it could damage your heart beyond repair and could possibly kill you."

"... Ok? But why are we talking about these keyblades?" the boy questioned the Master.

"It is because of these," he began, opening his hand. An image appeared, displaying a black creature that was like an ant, with yellow eyes that twitched erratically. "These are called Heartless, beings that have fallen into the darkness which has corrupted their hearts, turning them into these monsters. They are extremely dangerous should you be unprepared as they cannot be killed normally. Only a keyblade can vanquish them for good, which is why I am telling you this."

"Is something horrible about to happen?" the boy asked nervously. He felt as if the conversation was leading somewhere.

"You could... say that. Soon there will be a major battle between Light and Darkness, and Darkness will prevail and Light will expire... which is why I am gathering five keyblade wielders to lead a union of keyblade wielders to... fight the darkness," the master explained. He hesitated at few points, thinking over what he should say. "So far I have gathered four worthy leaders, but I am missing one. This is why you are here. I am hoping you would accept the role to protect the Light."

The teen couldn't believe what he heard: the Master had only known him for an hour, and he was asking this huge proposal to a teen who had amnesia. What was he thinking?

"W...W...What do you mean? _You_ said I am suffering from amnesia, how can I possibly lead a union when I don't know myself or this world fully?" the teen spluttered. He didn't believe he was worthy of being one.

"Well, yes, I did say that. But we can sort out the 'understanding the world' part in your training. As for knowing yourself, well, only _you_ can figure that out. Now do you accept? Or not?"

The boy hesitated.

"I... I... I would happily accept your proposition. After all, you did find and save me," the teen replied, nodding his head.

The Master clapped his hands together. "Excellent! I'm glad you agreed, but... I can't just call you _boy_ or _teen_ now, can I? After all, everyone needs a name, don't they?" 

"I suppose so. What should I be named?" the teen asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Well, I guess I could give different names and see if you like them or not," the Master answered.

"Ok, what do you have in mind?" replied the teen.

"Ben?"

_Ben?_

Seriously, for a Master of Masters, he had came up with a somewhat odd name.

"No, it doesn't sound intresting."

"Figures... Ephemer?"

"Umm... no that name doesn't suit me."

"Riku?"

"Isn't that name for someone who has silver hair and acts cool or something?"

"I guess. Anyways, Sora?"

The teen immediately siezed up at the name. He felt very familiar to the word, except he couldn't find any reason _why_ he was reacting to the name. Mumbling the name a few times, the teen finally decided against the name.

And so the cycle continued for quite some time. Neither party got anywhere. There was a mention of Xehanort, which the teen shot down the second it was mentioned.

"What about Gula?" The Master finished, exasperated, as he was out of names to come up with. He was even going to suggest Naruto to see if the teen liked it.

"Gula... mhhhmmm... Gula... I guess that would work," the now-named Gula answered.

"Great, that settles that problem... now then, let's begin your training to become a union leader, you are quite far behind the others," the master spoke, his voice laced with excitement.

Gula could only shiver at the Masters explanation. Dread was the only thing on his mind - he was afraid what the training would contain.

\-------------------------------------------------------

(Two Month later)

It was late in the evening when Gula flopped onto his bed, exhausted and glad that the brutal training was finally over.

The Master had created a pocket dimension where time flowed extremely slowly, which allowed Gula to understand the world without losing too much time. However, due to time still flowing outside, the Master said they could only be in there for a certain amount of time before the others began to wonder where they were.

During most of their time the pocket dimension, the Master brought wooden swords to see how well Gula performed in combat. He was satisfied that his last apprentice did know some fighting styles, though they were basic which anyone could block or counter if they were experienced like the Master. So, once the first combat lesson finished, the Master told Gula to create a style unique to him so it would give him an advantage.

Afterward, Gula had practiced different techniques using speed, considering his body wasn't really build for brutal attacks. Gula also performed magic, and during his practice Gula noticed he was more attunded with thunder over the other elements.

In between practicing his attacks and magic, the Master gave him a shorter version of history of the world, how Kingdom Hearts gave life to everything, the creation of the Heartless, that the Master was the first keyblade wielder, and the world itself. All of this information was enough to make anyone's head spin.

Sighing, the union leader-in-training stared at the ceiling before raising his right hand. A flash of light occurred and his keyblade flashed into existence. It was unique, the overall appearance was like lightning bolt with jagged edges where the teeth of a key usually was. The colour was mostly yellow, a bit of black near the hilt of the blade, and above the handle was the head of a yellow leopard with black stripes and green eyes staring back at Gula. The hand guards were jagged like the teeth of the blade, only thicker. Below the handle was a keychain, and at the end was a blue eye within metal wires.

This keyblade was unique to Gula alone, as the Master had forged the weapon from Gula's own heart at the end of his catch-up training as a congratulations. However, it had nearly killed the teen, considering that the Master had to extract the light within his body before being able to mold it into the wielder's weapon.

Now that he had caught up to the other union leaders with their training, he would be able to meet them tomorrow to continue understanding their role as being a union leader.

Unsummoning his keyblade, Gula dug into his pocket and pulled out a strange card with a white symbol that had fallen out of his pocket when he was training. He didn't know what the card meant or what it did, however it had to be important if he'd kept it before losing his memory.

The door to his room creaked open as he put the card away. The Master walked in, holding something in his left hand. It appeared to be a folded piece of yellow-and-black clothing with what looked like the mask of a leopard.

All fatigue vanished as Gula scrambled to stand upright to greet the Master. The Master raised his right hand, stopping any more movement from the teen.

"Gula, do you know why I am here?" The Master questioned, gesturing to the clothing in his hand.

"N... No Master, but... what are those robes for?" Gula answered. He was unsure what the clothing's significance was.

"These robes are for the union leaders to wear while they take the Mark of Mastery to become Keyblade Master. I am giving you this is because you are worthy to attempt this final test. Should you and the others succeed, not only would you be a full keyblade Master, but you will begin your final lesson on how to lead a union of Keyblade wielders before the fated day. Now that you are ready, tomorrow you can meet the other foretellers to participate the final test."

"I... I am... honoured for this gift, master," Gula answered, bowing as he was handed the robes and mask.

Nodding, the Master was about to leave before turning back to Gula. "Oh and, before I forget, you cannot remove your mask and robes to anyone unless it is necessary or for sleeping," he added as he left the room.

Gula looked at the clothing and the mask, something warm filled his chest. But he didn't care about that, all he cared about was he was contributing, hopefully with every other keyblade wielder, to protect the light from the darkness and that horrible prophecy.

Well, this wasn't too bad right now, considering it was better than wondering around lost and alone.

\-----------------Outside---------------------

Under the hood, the Master could only grin. The path to the first keyblade war was in sight. He had no worries that anything would prevent it: he just had keep each union apart and it was good as gold.

"Master," a feminine voice spoke down the corridor. The Master recognised to be the other young leader, Ava.

Before long, a young female that was around Gula's age approached the cloaked figure. She was wearing pink robe and hood, with a fox mask covering her eyes and her upper face.

"What's wrong, Ava? Is everything fine with the other four? Wait... don't tell me that Aced has gotten into a fight with Luxu again?" the Master joked, putting his hands on his hips and pretending to be cross.

"N... No it's not that... I was wondering where you were, since you weren't around during the day except in the morning or evening," Ava stuttered, flushed.

The Master could only laugh at how easy it was to tease the young girl. "Oh, excuse my assumption, I was busy helping our last union leader to catch up to where you four are currently with your training. Just earlier today he caught up with all of you, so tomorrow all of you will be able to meet him for the Mark of Mastery. So, play nice and don't damage him too badely," he replied, putting a hand on top of the girl's head and rubbing the area between the fox ears carefully.

"I won't hurt him, Master, I promise," Ava replied, satisfied with the answer before turning around to her own room further down the hall. Her curiosity about the new union leader was still on her mind, since the Master did refer to them as a he during their talk.

\--------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I assume that the Master is able to summon any keyblades besides the X-blade, considering he is the master and he doesn't want anyone to know about his own keyblade except Luxu.
> 
> I also assume that the Master can create one of those timeless worlds like Merlin, as he is the master and quite possibly knows every trick in the world.
> 
> Until the next chapter!


	3. Acquaintance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the tally of so far:
> 
> Sora X Kairi: 2
> 
> Gula X Ava: 3
> 
> Note: I'm going to have the vote close at the end of October instead of December, since four months is too long a time frame to wait.
> 
> I don't own Kingdom Hearts

\----------------Twilight Town------------------

The first thing Gula saw as he stepped into this unknown world was the orange twilight sky that bathed the the world. Looking around more, the Leopardus leader noticed he was in a town similar to Daybreak Town. The narrow alleyways and buildings were close together, and in the distance was a clock tower with bells that made it appear to have wings stood above everything else. Homesickness filled Gula's chest as he recognized the many similarities this world shared with the world he had lived in after being rescued.

Sighing, Gula dismissed the feelings as he remembered why he'd traveled to the World That Never Was with Luxu and the other foretellers. He was here because his heart didn't trust Luxu.

Walking around the town, Gula noticed many odd things with this world. In the corner was an entrance to a sewer, and on another side there was a community gathering place with a man playing an old black and white film video. The video displayed a small cartoon child with strange clothing flying a plane alongside a humanoid mouse.

There were lots of people around this town, so many paid little to no attention to the masked teen. The only exception was some of the children: their curiousity was drawn to him for a moment before they became bored and returned to what they were doing.

Jumping up to the ledge, Gula continued walking before his attention fell onto a tram moving on two metal rails underneath the bridge he was standing on.

How he knew what a tram was confused the masked teen further, considering he had never been to this world before. And yet... he knew what it was once he saw it.

But that wasn't his main priority at the moment.

Taking a right turn at the end of the little walkway, Gula found himself in a larger open area. To his left was a restaurant named Le Grand Bistro, where many people were gathering and eating delicious masterpieces. Further away was a small shop with colourful lights around it.

Heading to the shop, Gula noticed that it was runned by a Moogle, which reminded the foreteller of the Moogle back in Daybreak Town.

_Before everything went downwards, how he failed to stop the traitor from igniting the war._

"Welcome, Kupo, do you need anything?" the Moogle asked him.

"No, I'm not here to buy anything, I just want to know what this place is."

"Oh, you're from another world Kupo? Well, in that case, you're in Twilight Town. It's always Twilight here, Kupo. Would you like a map?"

"Yes, thank you," Gula answered. He placed some Munny that he'd received before his death onto the counter and the Moogle handed him a map.

"Here you go. If you see other Moogles, tell them I said hi, Kupo,"

"I will keep that in mind."

Leaving the Moolge to his devices, the foreteller looked at the map. He noticed a path behind him that lead to a station. With no other option open to him, besides going to another world or exploring the sewer, the teen decided to climb the hill to this station hoping for answers.

Along the way, the leopard union leader noticed someone was selling sea salt ice-cream to the locals, but... _why_ would anyone put salt into something sweet... unless it was to try a new flavour of some kind then... yeah.

Letting that slide, the young foreteller looked back at the map and noticed he was close to the station. The clock town slowly towered above him.

\------------------------Ontop of the clock tower---------------------

Roxas, Lea (who still preferred to be called Axel), Xion and Isa were currently sitting on the ledge of the clock tower facing the eternal sunset, eating Sea Salt Ice-cream.

Just a few days ago they were fighting for their lives in the second keyblade war. But some of them couldn't shake Sora's warning about what the Dark Master's goal truely was, purging the worlds and combining them back into one world again... it just didn't seem right.

It didn't help that Sora had vanished just as everyone had reunited again to celebrate their victory. After all, the brunette had sacrificed to saved others, and he didn't get to see the future past the conflict he pathed out.

The day after Sora's disappearance, Riku and Kairi had decided to go on a mission to rescue their friend. They believed he was out there somewhere, waiting for them.

Roxas, Axel, Xion and Isa wanted to help Riku and Kairi find their missing friend and would contribute to the search effort, but informed the two that they wouldn't explore many worlds since they had finally been reunited and wished to spend more time together.

Every now and then Roxas, Axel and Xion would explore a world that Sora had been too, asking people there if they seen him, but to no avail. Sora wasn't in those world.

Today, the four friends decided to take a break and simply hang out.

"So, Axel, you now have a Keyblade, huh? I guess the underworld must've frozen over for that to happen," Roxas teased the redhead. Even now, he was surprised that his friend was actually worthy of wielding one.

"Haha, very funny. Now you and Xion aren't the only ones with keyblades now, got that memorised?" Axel joked.

"It's nice that we are back together again but... do you think we will find Sora? Considering he saved us all... shouldn't we do something for him?" Xion questioned, looking down.

"Don't worry, Xion, we will find Sora. I know we will," Axel reassured the raven-haired girl.

Breaking away from the conversation, Roxas continued watching the sunset before something caught his eyes.

Well, not something, but _someone._

Just in front of the station was a figure wearing some kind of yellow robe, with a leopard mask and yellow cloak covering his face.

Normally Roxas would let this slide, but what this person is wearing was very unusual, and... possible suspicious.

Nudging Axel, Roxas pointed at the figure for the ex-Organisation members opinion.

"Never seen that guy or the clothing he is wearing," was his answer.

"Well, if we've never seen him, could he be a member of a new organisation? Like organisation IX?" 

"If what you said is true, Xion, then I will confront him for answers," Roxas replied. He stood up and jumped down to the strange figure, the others following behind him.

Upon reaching the ground, Roxas summoned Oblivion and pointed the weapon at the figure.

"Who are you? And what is your purpose here?" demanded the blond.

However, now that Roxas was closer to the figure, he could tell the figure was possibly a similar age to himself. He couldn't tell the gender of the figure, as only the lower part of the figure's head was visible.

The figure opened and closed their mouth, trying to find the words they wanted to say.

"Ventus...? What are you doing here? How did you escape the first keyblade war?" the figure asked. His voice sounded like a young male's, so that answered that question.

But now a new question arose, how did he know Ventus? The doppelganger hadn't told them about a leopard-masked figurer. And how could he participate in the first keyblade war considering it had happened centuries ago? 

"You're mistaken, I'm not Ventus. But how do you know him?" Roxas spoke dangerously to the figure. His grip on Oblivion tightened. 

"I've known him since he joined my union. But what union are you from, if you claim to not be Ventus? Perhaps his brother, then?" 

Unions? What _was_ he talking about? And how he claimed that Ventus in under his union or what, nonetheless this guy is could possible be a threat and he can't get his hands on Ventus.

Not waiting any longer, Roxas quickly dashed to the figure in hopes of catching him by surprise. Just as he was about to strike, a flash of light occurred and the figure blocked the attack with a jagged like keyblade.

Any normal threats could be dealt with easily, but adding a keyblade in the mix made the enemy far more dangerous.

Roxas summoned Oathkeeper in the hope of catching the other off guard, but the boy noticed the extra weapons at jumped back just in time for it to miss.

Before the figure could recover, Axel and Xion jumped in with their keyblades, attempting to overwhelm the masked figure. However, the figure either evaded, blocked, or countered with a attack of his own.

Roxas dashed around the figure and was about to strike when he moved to the side, just as Axel rushed to him. Roxas couldn't stop himself as his weapon made contact with his friend.

"Cura!" Xion shouted, as she cast the healing spell onto Axel, healing the wounds he had sustained from the accident.

All Roxas could think about as he attack was that this figure really knew how to wield a keyblade, maybe even better than Sora.

\--------------------------------------

Gula could only grumble as he blocked another attack from the Ventus lookalike. He swung his keyblade and nicked the imposter on the arm with the end his weapon.

It had been five minutes since the fight, but it seemed to be in his favour considering he had been a keyblade wielder for possibly a year, plus being taught by the Master himself.

He wanted to learn more about this world, until he found who he thought was Ventus but claimed he wasn't, but still knew about the other wielder.

So far, only three of the four were currently attacking him while the blue haired man stayed out of the combat. He was holding some kind of object and was speaking to it.

Jumping back, Gula cast a quick thunder on the three attacking him, stunning them for a moment as he hit the girl and the other male with the flat side of his keyblade, rendering them unconscious. He didn't really like to attack other wielders unless there was no other options.

However, the Ventus lookalike had quickly recovered, and barely blocked the attack before it made contact with his skull and retaliated with quick strikes, clearly angered by what happened with his friend.

"Just stop already, I just need to know what happened after the keyblade war," Gula told the blond between blocks. His heart ached to fight another wielder, considering keyblades were created to fight the darkness, not each other.

"Shut up. You claim to know a friend of mine who has only been alive for 16 years. There's no way he could've been alive centuries ago before the first keyblade war! Not to mention you hurt my friends," the blond shot back, and attacked harder.

While Gula had more stamina than the rest of the foretellers, he was starting to feel his energy close to depletion. Considering he had just been revived around an hour ago, it would take some time getting used to his body again.

Sighing, Gula pushed the bond away from him and cast his strongest thundaga, hoping to just knock the teen out.

The thundaga took the form of a leopard as it rushed towards the blond who prepared to embraced the oncoming attack.

Until a strange dark firaga spell appeared and blocked the spell.

Shortly after, a male with silver hair and a keyblade similar to Fenir jumped between the blond and Gula, his weapon pointing to the latter.

"Are you okay Roxas?" the new figure asked the blond, who Gula now identified as Roxas.

"Peachy," Roxas replied dryly.

Gritting his teeth, Gula knew that in a few minutes he'd be overpowered in his exhausted condition. While he still needed to learn about this era, it was pointless to continue investigating this side of town now that the new figure appeared.

However, before he decided to escape, Gula noticed darkness within the new person's heart. Even though the keyblade war had happended, he won't let darkness consume anymore keyblade wielders.

"You - why are you using darkness? Don't you realise the dangers of using it?" He asked the newcomer, disappointed that someone would use the thing that he fought against.

"I was... naïve when I was younger. I thought that if I accepted the darkness it would make me stronger... But a friend of mine taught me that darkness doesn't make you strong, it's the friends you make and those you want to protect," the silver-haired teen answered, before moving in to attack and continue what Roxas started.

Grunting at this new attacker, Gula was put on the defence as he blocked most of the attacks thrown at him. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up, considering his body was rapidly growing weary.

**SMACK!**

Pain shot through the leopard-masked teen from his right ribs. The newcomer had managed to land a strike on him in his weakening state.

Jumping back, Gula only narrowly missed a follow up blow.

The foreteller knew his advantage was slipping and, considering his cura spell wasn't as strong as Ava or Invi's, the spell wouldn't make any differences. Therefore, the only option was to retreat.

Opening a corridor of light, Gula cast a quick thundera to distract the two as he jumped through it before anyone could follow him.

The travel through the corridor didn't take long. When he exited, Gula found himself in front of a mansion in a forest. There was a small, overgrown front garden with vines climbing the wall of the building, signaling years of being abandoned. 

Entering the abandoned building, the lone foreteller searched for a room to rest. After resting, he would continue to explore the building for anything useful.

After a minutes of searching, Gula found a bedroom. The Leopardus leader carefully took off his mask and cloak, revealing spiky brown hair and blue eyes. He summoned his keyblade to cast a quick Cura to heal the pain. It wasn't as good as Ava's or Invi's, but it would do for the moment.

Laying on the bed, Gula allowed his body to recover from the extensive stress it endured.

Shortly after he recovered, he could only chuckle at the similarities this had to training with the Master.

Well, that was a different level of difficulty, he had to remind himself.

\--------------------Twilight Station-----------------

Riku sighed, relieved that the strange cloaked teen fled from the fight.

He'd been searching for Sora in Toy World until he received a message from Isa, stating that Roxas, Axel and Xion had engaged with a strange cloaked figure, who claimed to know Ventus. Riku had arrived there as fast as possible and barely blocked a strange thundaga headed for Roxas, until he forced the stranger to leave.

Unsummoning Braveheart, the silver-haired teen approached Axel as Isa approached Xion, pulling them too their feet just as they regained conscious.

"Man... whose idea was it to ram a metal pole into the back of my head," grumbled Axel, sore that he'd been defeated so easily.

"I don't know, Axel, but something is going on and I don't like it. Especially after the short time frame of the seconded keyblade war," Isa responded.

"You might be onto something Isa. We may have a new threat on the horizon, one without Sora's help."

(Meanwhile)

\------------------The World That Never Was------------------

The World That Never Was, a desolate world filled with skyscraper buildings that was the domain of nobodies who now walked aimlessly without the guidance of Organisation 13. Deeper into the world was a castle that the human Nobodies had used as a base, and above the castle was a damaged form of Kingdom Hearts.

Inside the castle, within a room filed with thirteen chairs, a corridor of darkness appeared. Luxu exited from this darkness, dragging the black box with him. Shortly after he entered the room three corridors of light appeared from which Ira, Invi and Aced exited. However, the four noticed that Gula wasn't there.

"Well now... where's the little leopard? I thought he would come to hear about this era, especially considering he can be hopeless at times," Luxu drawled. The master's plan couldn't come to fruitation without all six of his apprentices.

"Gula usually works alone, and if any of us are with him besides Ava he'll speak if it's important. Ava is only one of the few that can make him say more than a few words," Invi responded.

"So, the little kitty wants to be a lone wolf, eh? As if. We'll just have to bring him back when the Master's plan is almost complete," Luxu continued, shrugging his shoulders without care.

"Luxu, stop talking nonsense and explain what is going on," shouted Ace, frustrated at the lack of information their lost comrade was providing.

"Alright, alright, if you say so," Luxu replied. He soon informed the others about what happened, how Xehanort tried to use Kingdom Hearts in the past, but was defeated by three keyblade wields when one fell into darkness, another trapped in the realm of darkness and the other lost his heart as it took refuge somewhere else.

He then told them about Sora and his first adventure and triumph over Xehanort's heartless Ansem, his second battling the organisation IX with its leader Xemnas, Xehanort's nobody, and his participating in the seconded keyblade war that Xehanort organised, as well as his minor adventures in Castle Oblivion and the Realm of Sleep.

"This Sora is very talented, saving the world from darkness that we couldn't achieve," Ira said slowly, after absorbing what Luxu had said.

"Yep, too bad I had to be on the other side. If he had existed back in our time, he would've been an excellent foreteller."

"It still doesn't explain why you summoned us back, Luxu. Does the Master still have a role we need to play?" Invi questioned.

"Ah, I thought I _was_ forgetting something. Yes, the Master had given us one last task. You see, the second keyblade war was constructed so I could easily access Kingdom Hearts to summon you three and Gula back to the realm of the living. I was hoping Ava would come too, but either she is stuck somewhere or her heart is gone. I will sort that out, though the Master told me that once the time is ready, we will have to search for thirteen locks he had scattered across the worlds before he disappeared to unlock this box. Only you three, Gula, Ava and myself can open those locks to the box. What is inside, I can't tell just yet, but this is the Master's final mission for all of us," Luxu explained carefully.

"I won't believe what you said is true. However, if the Master still has instructed us to complete, then I will oblige to fulfil them," Ira spoke, earning a nod from Invi agreeing to the Unicornus union leader's statement.

Aced only grumbled, but had to agree that they were tasked by the same person and that Ira trusted him when everyone else thought he was the traitor.

"Then that's settles that, I will look for the other two foretellers and bring them back while you three search for the locks."


	4. Trials and Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy late new year everyone, I hope that 2019 was a great time for you. Sorry for the inactivity; I had exams in November and had my wisdom teeth removed in December.
> 
> Now, with that aside, here are the final results for which ship will be used:
> 
> Sora x Kairi: 5
> 
> Gula x Ava: 9
> 
> Gula and Ava wins the poll. I do apologise to those that wanted Sora and Kairi, however, it's what others wanted to see.
> 
> I don't own Kingdom Hearts

\-------------------Daybreak town---------------------

Night dragged on for Gula as he waited for morning, when he and the five others the Master had chosen would participate in their final trail to become foretellers.

The brunette was nervous; he didn't know what the other were foretellers like. Were they kind? Cheerful? Quiet? Agressive? He had no way of knowing which was true.

He lost track of time while thinking, and didn't sleep until exhaustion claimed him. When he woke up, there was a slight shade of orange on the horizon, signalling that it was close to early morning.

Gula lazily gazed around the room he was living in. It wasn't anything interesting in his opinion, just lots of room that wasn't possible to fill unless he turned it into a junkyard... which the Master would most likely scold him for. Though there was a desk was to the side, mainly as a place to store the books the Master had given him to make the room look tidy, and a wardrobe to house more of the foreteller clothing he had been given by the Master of Masters. It was spacious, which he didn't complain about; to him, his room was just another place to practice his technique or to be by himself if necessary.

Returning his attention to the outside, Gula could now see the sun slowly rise above the horizon, showing that a new day had started.

Gula changed into the foreteller clothing as he waited. Currently in his possession was the leopard mask the Master had given him to wear, so he could hide his upper face from the other apprentices and the locals. Lifting it up, Gula's blue eyes stared into the yellow eyes of the mask as the sun continued to rise. His heart picked up a few paces.

The time had come for the final trail.

Turning the mask around, Gula carefully placed it on top of his head, adjusting it to align the eyes correctly with his. Once satisfied, Gula grabbed the yellow clothing and covered his hair, concealing his identity further. Once he was happy, Gula left the room to the Master's study.

Not wanting to keep the Master waiting any longer, the leopard foreteller quickly strolled through most of the hallways and stairs, slowly approaching the Masters study near the top of the clock tower.

"Wait up!" Someone shouted behind Gula, causing him to stop and turn around.

Another person wearing the foreteller clothing approached Gula, ones sporting a pink and white palette. A fox mask covered the supposed female face instead of a leopard mask.

As the other foreteller caught up, she stopped beside him and gave him a soft smile. Gula felt that it was one of warmth and kindness.

"Hello, my name is Ava. What's yours?" The now-named Ava asked softly, tilting her head with curiosity.

"Gula. It's nice to meet you Ava. Are you, by chance, one of the Master's other apprentices?" Gula replied.

Ava hummed slightly, thinking, before the smile returned, "That's right. Though, I am only the fifth one to have been taught by him. I guess you are the last then, right?"

"Well... yeah, I'm the last apprentice the. But... Where are the others? What are they like?" Gula questioned the female, hoping she could inform him about the others.

Ava glanced at the gears of the clock tower, watching them turn slowly before replying, "Sadly, I haven't seen them, mostly due to the Master stating I should focus on my own training before the final test arrives... So I am pretty much in the dark about them."

"Oh, well, thank you for that." The leopard foreteller thanked her just as they reached the study.

Opening the door, both could see the master standing at the desk in the corner, wearing his traditional black coat. Four other people surrounded him, three wearing the foreteller clothing whilst the other wore the same as the Master. All four were listening to the Master until the sound of the door caught their attention, and they focused on Gula and Ava instead.

"Well, it looks like the fox and the leopard have made their acquaintance while taking their time. Were you two caught hunting a shadow or something?" The Master questioned.

"N-no, Master, we just meet each other as we came here." Ava's face reddened at the Masters comment.

The Master only chuckled at Ava's statement. "Calm down, Ava, I was just joking, unless... you two weren't doing _other_ things, right...?" He asked the two in a sweet voice that made Ava's face redden even further, while a slight blush slowly appeared on Gula.

"M-Master, what are you event saying... I wouldn't do that, I only just met Gula so we wouldn't have done any of... that," Ava blurted, as she tried to hide her face from further embarrassment.

For a short while nobody said anything, until the Master cleared his throat bringing everyone's attention back to him.

"Well then... Before we begin, I would like all of you to introduce yourselves to each other, as starting today, and once you succeed, all six of you will be seeing each other frequently. Just say your name and something about yourself."

The other cloaked figure stood up as the Master finished. "Guess I'll start... My name is Luxu and I was the first apprentice, that's all you need to know."

Next, the man with the unicorn mask said, "My name is Ira, and I am the second apprentice. I am assigned to be the union leader of unicornus, I fight to protect the light from darkness."

"My name is Invi, and I am the third to been taught by the Master. I'm also the possible leader of the Angus union. Ira and I were acquainted at times before we were offered to become foretellers," the other female answered.

The man with the bear mask straightened as he spoke, "I am Aced of Ursus, and though I am the fourth to be trained, I am one of the strongest here besides the Master," he proclaimed proudly.

"M-My name is Ava and I'm the fox foreteller and the fifth apprentice, I hope we canall get along well," Ava replied, a bit quietly after Aced's loud, boastful behaviour and the Master's teasing.

All eyes rested onto Gula. He felt his stomach turning knots, as though a large body had taken hold and was stretching and twisting it. Gula gulped as he spoke.

"My name is Gula, and I am the last apprentice the Master. I am the foreteller leopard, and I have no memories before the Master had found me," he concluded, earning what he though was sympathy from the other young foreteller, while the rest didn't react as much.

Once everyone had introduced themselves the Mast began clapping. "Bravo, you six, I can't imagine how hard that must be, specially for you Ava and Gula. Now that's over, here is what the final trial will be: you all have to defeat an enemy that will be waiting in the Realm of Darkness. However, it won't show itself unless you slay six other heartless. Once you have defeated your target enemy, it will drop something that you must show me. If you successfully show me the item, you will have passed the trial."

Once the explanation was over, the Master opened a corridor into the Realm of Darkness, which all six entered once he gave them the approval to enter.

Luxu was given a Starlight keyblade from the Master, as a measurement to protect himself in the darkness due to that fact that his keyblade was unforgeable, since his heart didn't compromise of the right proportion of light and darkness to be created at the current time.

"Careful while in the Realm of Darkness; it will try to torment you, tempt you, and try to make you fall into darkness. This is the final trial. Can you resist temptation of darkness?" the Master asked, before the corridor closed.

\----------------------Realm of Darkness--------------------

The six exited the corridor that was linked to light and darkness as they surveyed the dead and dark land the Realm portrayed. Heartless were scattered across the beach; a few had tried to attack them, but had been cut down instantly by all six.

Once the heartless were taken, out Ira turned to the group.

"We shall split up to take out our targets. Once you have completed your task, meet up back here. If anyone doesn't return in thirty minutes, try to look out for them in case they are in serious trouble."

Everybody nodded before they took off for their search.

\-----------------

Gula sprinted through the Realm, swiping at any heartless that dared to go near him.

His target was a Guard Armour heartless, although it was different to the usual silver, red and blue. The silver was replaced by gold, which the Master explained meant is was a Guard Armour Omega. They were stronger than the regulars, making the trial harder for the leopard foreteller to complete.

Slashing at another soldier, the young foreteller stopped and looked at the portal-like opening that surrounded the area, spewing out tiny amounts of light to luminiate the area. There were heartless scattered across in many different forms, though the Guard Armour was nowhere to be found.

Gula could only sigh at his predicament. For something so large it definitely knew how to hide, but that didn't matter: he would keep searching until the Omega Guard Armour was located.

And immediately afterwards, Gula heard the sound of metal crashing against the ground not far away, coming towards his location at a reasonable pace.

Getting into a defensive formation, Gula prepared for the unknown entity.

To his luck, the Guard Armour Omega appeared before him. The pieces of its dissembled body floated near each other in the loose shape of armour, only keeping close proximity by unknown forces. Except, it wasn't alone: shortly after, a lumbering mass of shadow formed and came out in what was loosely a human form with tentacle hair that had crimson ends, flat feet that looked like wisps of shadow, and muscular arms that ended with the same crimson colour. A massive, gaping hole took up the being's chest in a form of a heart. Yellow eyes bore down on the almost-Foreteller with nothing but predatory instincts.

This was a Darkside Omega.

Alongside the Darkside, there was a tall lanky, heartless with arms that appeared to be made of cards ending with sharp claws; skinny legs that seemed to be split into two, connecting to blade like feet; a thin torso, and multiple flat cylinder faces stacked on top of each other, with a hat at the top with a light blue staff with yellow orbs being held in its right arm.

A Trickmaster Omega.

Normally, fighting a massive heartless was easy for a keyblade wielder if they were quick enough and knew where to hit. Adding another one complicated things, however, and including a third one was asking for annihilation against the target. In this case, that target was Gula.

Staring at the three giants, the Leopard Forteller tightened his grip on his keyblade, as the heartless advanced.

\--------------Ava------------

Ava sighed in relief at the defeat of the Queen Bee Omega. The queen wasn't hard to locate, considering the swarm of heartless bees within the area was a giveaway to her location.

Ava was glad she had the ability to case solid illusions, considering the heartless kept its distance from the foreteller. She had to cast multiple copies of herself to surround the heartless so she could get close enough to attack it without it fleeing from her, again.

Now she was heading back to where the other foretellers were to meet up once they finished their target for the Master. Slowly, she trekked back to the dead beach.

Eventually she made it back, and discovered that Ira, Invi and Aced were already there. There was no sign of Luxu or Gula.

Invi noticed her as she turned towards Ava's location. "Glad you made it back, Ava. What took you so long?"

"The heartless kept trying to escape from me, so I had to use illusions to trap it," Ava answered.

"That's good. Thankfully nothing serious has happened to you, although I am starting to fear that Gula and Luxu are in trouble. However, they may just be having similar difficulty with their target."

The four waited for the last two members to arrive back from their mission. It wasn't too long before they heard the grumbles of someone approaching.

"Stupide fortress crab, how am I suppose to attack its weak point when it keeps hiding behind its pincers? Not to mention the fireballs it keeps launching at me. Seriously, this is one of the Master's cloaks, and he would be _really_ upset if it got ruined," the voice continued to rant until the figure belonging to the voice appeared, revealing it to be Luxu.

Luxu spotted the other four already waiting. "Oh, so you four managed to beat me. Honestly I'm glad, considering what I fought was the most annoying fight I had ever done." 

"We could tell, Luxu, considering you were rambling quite loud." Ava giggled at the other's brashness.

"Luxu, did you happen to see Gula anytime after we split?" Ira asked.

Luxu shook his head. "Haven't seen him since then. Just give him time, his heartless might just be playing hardball for him or something like that."

And the five waited for the last apprentice to arrive.

Ten minutes later and the missing foreteller still hasn't arrived.

Another ten minutes had passed and Ava started to become worried that something happened to the older teen.

"I'm getting more concerned the longer Gula doesn't appear. I think something must've happened to him," the young foreteller spoke her concerns.

"I am starting to feel the same way. I mean, Guard Armors can be tough if you're not quick enough, but they can be dealt with without too much difficulty. Though, for him to take so long, something else must've happened," Luxu answered.

Ira took a step towards the main land, trying to see if he could spot the last Foreteller. "If that's correct, then he may be in more danger that we were. I would like someone to come with me to search for Gula. The others will remain here, in case anything decides to block our exit." 

Without any hesitation, Ava stepped forward to say she wanted to look as well. Ira only turned his head slightly to look at her before running in the direction they last saw Gula, with her close behind.

Many heartless tried to attack the two, but they meet the same fate as Ira would cut them in half while Ava cast magic at the heartless further away.

"How will we be able to find Gula, Ira? The Realm of Darkness could span for miles and we may never see him anywhere."

"I do not know. Hopefully he is still alive and fighting whatever is taking him too long for us to hear or see him to help."

So the two created a cycle: defeat heartless, look around, continue fowards, defeat heartless, look around, move forwards, rinse and repet until they find their missing member.

Eventually, the scenery had changed from the rocky land that began at the beach to darkness with small lights barely illuminating the area and, to their credit, the sounds of metal clashing against metal.

Ava's hopes started to rise at the sounds of a fight. Looking at the unicorn foreteller, she thought she saw something similar briefly, before he rushed towards where the sounds were coming from.

Wasting little time, Ava quickly followed Ira as the sounds grew louder and she could start to hear yelling mixed in with something crashing into the supposed ground.

\--------------------Gula-----------------------

Gula narrowly avoided the armoured foot that was about to crush him into the ground for the umpteenth time now.

Since the Darksider, Trickmaster and Guard Armour appeared, he had trouble getting close enough to land a hit on either of the three; the Guard Armour forced him to dodge whenever he tried to get close, while the Darksider would lob projectiles at him or summon shadows to further increase their numbers. The Trickmaster would cast fireballs or sweep the ground with its long arm.

The leopard foreteller could feel his magic near depletion, as he had to cast thundaga to clear out the shadows multiple times now. It was starting to annoy him that the heartless are working perfectly together.

Almost to perfect, for the mindless creatures that they are.

He was so occupied on avoiding the Guard Armour, Gula forgot he jumped right in front of the Darksider, who took the opportunity to use its hands to swat him away.

Pain seared up Gula's spine as he was flung away from the two. He yelped in surprise at the sudden contact, crashing into the ground and tumbling a meter or two. Slowly, he got back up again by using his keyblade as a support and faced the three giants.

Again an orb of darkness pooled in the Darksider hand as it slammed the orb into the ground, creating a temporary pool of darkness. Shadows began to appear again, yellow eyes boring into Gula's heart.

Just as he was about to attack, two shadows jumped from behind the Darksider. To Gula's surprise, they were holding keyblades. One sliced into the shadowy giant, causing it to roar in pain and anger, while the other hit the Trickmaster, earning a screech from the lanky heartless.

The two shadows then appeared in front of Gula, and he was able to distinguish them as Ira and Ava.

Letting out a sigh, Gula stood next to Ava.

"Sorry that I'm taking a while. These three have been difficult to deal with due to them covering each others weaknesses."

"You do not need to apologise. None of us could've seen three heartless appearing to one of us, much alone working together," Ira gruffly replied.

"Yeah, they are working almost in sync, something highly impossible for heartless to do by themselves."

Ava turned slightly at that comment, "Are you saying something is controlling them?" she asked before looking back at the heartless.

"It doesn't seem impossible. However, if such a person is controlling the heartless, they mush be stopped afterwards. The heartless are too dangerous to be controlled." 

"We can do that later, Ira. However, I need to defeat that Guard Armour to clear the trial. Don't suppose you mind dealing with the other two?"

"If that's so, then I'll focus on the Darksider." Ira answered.

"Sure, I don't want to see any of us failing this trial after what each of us had gone through." Ava spoke.

After that Ava and Ira faced the Darksider and Trickmaster, allowing Gula to focus on the Guard Armour itself.

\----------------------------------------


End file.
